Meet Our New Project Manager, John Wojcik-Skorczynski

I was born in Toronto shortly after my parents and brother had managed to escape the grips of Soviet-occupied Poland. My father, an engineer, and mother, an established Polish journalist, restarted their lives in Canada in hopes of providing my brother and I with all of the abundance and freedom that our new home had to offer. Growing up in a newcomer Canadian family, of course, came with many challenges. However, eventually these perceived challenges became tremendous advantages in my professional development – such as learning English as a third language and moving around from place to place as my parents actively sought after new opportunities to establish themselves and carve out a space for our family to thrive in Canada.

As a product of globalization myself, exercising my global citizenship as a Polish-Canadian quickly became a critical aspect of my life that helped shape my personal identity and particular approach to leadership. My work in project management for We Make Change acts as a vehicle through which I can contribute to the very real, yet solvable, global challenges and, quite literally, drive (or make, as it were) change together with my remarkable international team of project officers and ambassadors. With thousands of active members and a nuanced approach to volunteering by way of a tech-based platform that enhances youth participation in sustainable development, We Make Change goes far beyond simply connecting like-minded, eager young people who want to change the world and, in fact, provides our ‘change makers’ with the power and opportunities needed to change the world.

The United for 2030 Citizens Assembly is just one of many ways we are empowering today’s global youth in this way. This project will bring 100 young leaders from 20 countries together as they work to design and implement 20 direct impact projects to support the SDGs. We Make Change will pair each country’s participants with mentors to accompany them along their 12-month journey in addition to facilitating various professional development workshops related to things like results-based management (RBM), fundraising, resource mobilization, and the like.

The project works as follows:

Apply – Young people aged between 18-35 are currently applying to be one of five young leaders representing their nation.

Create – Successful applicants take part in a 12 month programme where they collaborate to develop a project to address a challenge in their nation that helps achieve the SDGs.

Solve – Every nation pitches their project at the United For 2030 Summit to people from all over the world, sharing their learnings to promote collective solutions to the SDGs.

United For 2030 has now launched in 20 countries across the world, and applications are open until December 17th. This pilot is just the start, and we aim to eventually include every nation on the planet. For now, United for 2030 will kick off with this diverse range of countries:

Africa – Algeria, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania

Americas – Brazil, Haiti, Uruguay, USA

Asia – Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam

Europe – Italy, Romania, Russia, United Kingdom

Middle East – Jordan, Yemen

Moving forward, we are actively seeking to enhance our outreach to youth by developing global, regional, and local partnerships with stakeholders around the world, in addition to adding enthusiastic new members to our project team!

We Make Change

We Make Change gives you the power to change the world. Whatever your cause, whatever your skill, whatever time you can give, we enable you to make the change you want to see.

Become a Changemaker today and use your skills to support the causes you care about. Sign up today!